Haruhi's Repose
by dutchrub
Summary: [Oneshot] Haruhi needs a break from hideandseek, and she finds it in an unlikely place. MoriHaru.


_Author's Note: This is my first Ouran fic (as I just started watching it), and I was so inspired, I wrote this in one sitting. I think it's pretty self-contained, but I may feel like adding on to it later. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I think it came out well enough. Such lovely characters all. I hope to write them again in the future. If you enjoyed as well, please leave a review! Thanks!_

**Haruhi's Repose**

Shrubbery and flowers streamed past in a colorful blur as Haruhi pumped her hands and legs as fast as they would go. As she leaped over a garden wall, she reflected that however silly these games of hide-and-seek were, somehow Tamaki-sempai could always get her into them. One minute she was insisting that they were all spoiled, rich bastards at this school, and the next she was trying her damnedest to hide in the best possible niche.

Haruhi rounded a sharp bend in the hedge maze and blew by the gazebo she and Tamaki always hid in. Since he was the seeker, this would probably be the first place he'd look, especially since she was sure his goal was to find her first. She couldn't recall how she knew this, but of this fact, she was indeed sure.

_Flashback one minute ago._

"My darling daughter, I will find you first! You needn't fear with Tamaki-kun on the job!" A shower of cherry blossoms caressed his fair face as if on cue. Haruhi had always wondered how he could arrange a petal storm on command.

"Should I be afraid of this game, sempai?" she said rather deadpan, her normally large eyes narrowed and suspicious. Tamaki merely rubbed his head in embarrassment and hurried to begin counting backwards from one hundred.

_Return to present._

At last, she spied a hidey hole that she knew would be the last place Tamaki would look, which turned out perfectly as she heard him reach number one. Haruhi ducked through a fissure in the hedge wall to find a small natural cavern formed of delicate branches. It was dim, but more like a shade drawn on a sunny day. There was a soft jade glow inside, and it was cool and welcoming.

Moments after her ankle had disappeared through the crack, the boom of Tamaki's voice squeezed through the thick shrubbery and into Haruhi's ears. "Ready or not, Haruhi, here I come!"

"Thank god for this place. That maniac will never find me here."

There was a rustle in the leaves, and Haruhi watched the crack in the hedge, her eyes larger than she could ever remember them being. "It—it can't be! Tamaki-sempai couldn't have found me already!" Fear filled her voice; she needed a break, just a short one. Tamaki-sempai was a good friend, but he was very high maintenance, and as the temperature was on the rise, she needed a few minutes to relax and cool off.

Again, Haruhi heard the rustle, but this time she noticed it did not come from outside the cavern, but from _within_ it. "Please…" she begged slowly as her eyes inched toward the end of the small hollow.

She almost laughed outright when she saw him. How could she have missed this? Mere inches from her own feet were Mori-sempai's. His long legs were folded tightly against his chest with his strong arms encircling them.

"Mori… sempai," she said with astonishment.

Haruhi felt a strange case of déjà vu as he brought a finger up to his lips and pantomimed zippering them shut.

She quirked an eyebrow, but through the green veil of the cavern, she spied a familiar silhouette stalking down the lane. As it approached, she heard Tamaki muttering frantically to himself. "My beautiful Haruhi did not hide in _our_ hiding spot. Doesn't she love her daddy? Doesn't she want to make him happy? Oh, my Haruhi, where have you gone? I vowed to find you first, and a prince never reneges once he swears an oath to his lady." She watched him make a fist and thrust it in the air. "Yes! I will find and rescue my daughter, and we will set about finding the rest of our family together."

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Oh, Tamaki-sempai," she thought, "as dramatic as ever."

She definitely wasn't coming out for a while, especially when it involved traipsing all over Ouran's grounds to look for her fellow Host members. Still, she admired Tamaki's loyalty and tenderness. Were it not for those two things, she doubted a single soul of the Host Club would have stuck around. In spite of his rantings, she allowed herself a wisp of a smile, but that didn't mean she was about to make her presence known.

She glanced up and found Mori sitting stone still. Even his eyes were closed, as though he thought his lashes might make a sound to give him away. Her smile broadened. "As if the man could get any quieter," she laughed to herself. It was almost as though he could hear her thoughts, for he opened his dark eyes and stared directly at her.

Haruhi froze. The cavern suddenly felt the size of a postage stamp. Mori's gaze was intense, more so than she had expected, for their eyes rarely met—and even then, just briefly—and she had no previous experience on which to base this encounter. Haruhi could understand why his name and his appearance was so fearsome to others; Morinozuka Takashi exuded strength and confidence.

Tamaki stood right outside their hidey hole, but her eyes were locked onto another pair of eyes so gray, they were like sea-churned stones. She couldn't look away.

Eventually the shadow passed over them, but it was only after Mori closed his eyes again that she felt air return to her lungs; she inhaled it greedily and swore she would look away from him for the remainder of this game.

"Haruhi," he said in his low grumble. She could have cursed him, for again she inexplicably lost her breath. She remembered that day in the Ootori family's jungle resort when Mori-sempai had first called her by name, and then she remembered the happy feeling that had washed through her. Oddly, she hadn't thought of it again until this very moment, perhaps because she hadn't understood the strange sensation then, nor could she now.

"Haruhi," Mori said again, but this time it wasn't his deep growl, but a tight gasp. She finally dared to look at him and found, to her total chagrin, that her heel was grinding into his toes.

"Sorry, sempai!" she pleaded and made sure to tuck her feet under her legs. Too embarrassed to make eye contact, she busied herself with a fallen leaf, poking and prodding it with her fingertip.

Mori did not move to distance himself, only calmly replied, "It's nothing."

Haruhi wondered how many minutes had lapsed since she'd discovered this cavern. Five? Ten? Thirty? She glanced at her watch and found it had only been two. Why did it feel so long?

"Bored?" he said.

She flailed her hands uncomfortably, assuming she had offended him. "No, no. Ah, it's just—" She was at a loss for words, ironic in the presence of a man who barely said three to express one thought. "I wonder who Tamaki-sempai will find first."

Mori closed his eyes and cocked his head to the side.

"Mori-sempai could have found me in an instant, yes?" He stared at her straight-on, but this time Haruhi was careful to avoid his gaze. She knew he was curious why she would say such a bold thing. "It's just… I was recalling that time the club went to Kyouya-sempai's jungle pool, and you used your natural instincts to find Hani-sempai. You must be a brilliant fighter to do that."

Haruhi waited through a stifling pause, fearing she had indeed offended her sempai further, before he finally offered a noncommittal, "Mm."

"He certainly doesn't make conversation easy," she thought rather bitterly. And then an unusual thought struck her: maybe Mori-sempai felt as awkward as she did. After that, she decided not to force him into conversation and, in that way, she finally got her desired relaxation. She found sitting with Mori offered companionship and safety, while his silence offered a sense of peace and affability.

Several minutes ticked by, and Haruhi felt her muscles shuddering. It was cool in the hollow, sure, but it was also cramped. She tried slouching against the cavern wall, but sharp sticks poked her back and she hissed as a twig scraped her scalp.

Across from her, Mori adjusted himself, his left foot nicking the top of her right shoe. She glanced up to see his legs were still folded up, but now they were wide apart, allowing her a clear view of his chest and neck. He patted the empty space between his legs. "Here," he said.

She furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what he wanted. He seemed to struggle for a moment before he said:

"You can lean against me."

How wide her eyes must have been! "Sempai, I couldn't—"

"To relax," he finished simply.

Haruhi felt a light blush travel up her face as she recalled the feel of Mori's chest and the firm power of his arms, which she knew well from that fateful day in the jungle pool. She was thankful for the green tint of the hedge as it would combat the pink of her cheeks.

"I can't imagine it would be very relaxing for you, sempai," she insisted stubbornly, her thick locks of hair obscuring her eyes. She figured if she didn't look at him, the offer would go away, and she would go back to her own fetal position.

But this tactic did not work. Mori encircled her wrist gently with his dexterous fingers and guided her toward him. His pinky remained in the air, as though a loose thread ready to unravel the whole thing were she to put up any resistance. She did not.

Instead, she inched over until the small of her back was against his muscular stomach and her shoulders were flush with his broad upper chest. It swelled softly with each breath, like the waves of that fake jungle pool she had detested at the time—in retrospect, it was a fond memory.

He did not wrap his arms around her or caress her in any way, as those troublesome twins would surely have, but instead Mori-sempai was her wall—no, even better, her pillow. His body was sturdy but secure, and it was surprisingly easy to find a cozy nook to shelter her. It took some inner coaxing for her to will her head back and to the right and against his shoulder.

"Are you… all right with this?" she asked hesitantly. She was afraid he would think she was intentionally nuzzling him—she didn't want him to be uncomfortable with her. This was a gesture of his friendship, and Haruhi was determined not to make what was fast becoming a very relaxing day into a scene reminiscent of their Host Club patrons.

"Mm," he said again, only this time she was sure he meant yes and not "I am unsure."

At last able to release her inhibitions, she collapsed totally against him. She expected Mori-sempai to sag backwards against her weight, but he remained utterly rigid, which, for a fleeting moment, she thought was a little strange.

In the gentle heat of their cave, Haruhi's eyelids began to droop. "Thank you, Mori-sempai."

He said nothing, but even though she couldn't see his face, she knew he had nodded.

"This was a much better day," she said through a yawn, "than I had expected." The last thing Haruhi saw before falling asleep was not before her eyes, but behind the curtains of her eyelids, in her own imaginary theater. It was of Morinozuka Takashi smiling.

-----

Haruhi woke with a tremendous start. It was as though the Earth was trembling beneath her. She had forgotten she was still in the midst of a game of hide-and-seek, in a hidey hole with Mori-sempai (she only remembered that last tidbit because a pair of knees tightened around her waist, pinning her safely against him).

"Are you okay?" he asked loudly into her ear because a horrible, high-pitched buzz now hovered above their heads. Still in the realm of her imaginary theater, Haruhi pictured a giant swarm of killer bees overtaking the planet.

Instead, as the buzzing neared them, they noticed it was getting brighter in the cavern. They both looked up, but as bits of debris rained upon them, Mori leaned over her body to shield her.

At last, something removed the top layer of their shelter and a bloodthirsty Tamaki loomed over them with a heavy-duty weed whacker twitching menacingly in his right hand. The twins looked treacherously over Tamaki's shoulders, their stern eyes and bright-red faces possibly viewable from space.

The sharp rays of sunshine made Haruhi blink as though she'd never seen them, and the furious looks on the three boys' faces melted into swooning, big-eyed expressions. "So cute, our little Haruhi!" they chorused. "Like an innocent newborn!"

Suddenly, Tamaki's face loomed large and angrily over the huddled pair. "Now corrupted by this foul devil!" Tamaki pointed an accusing finger at the man with Haruhi between his legs.

Contrary to the fury the King was displaying, Hani peeked around the corner before leaping over what was left of the shrubbery and into the hollow with the startled couple. "We looked for Haru-chan and Takashi for a half hour," he chirruped.

"An unfortunate truth," Kyouya said from the background, his expressionless face staring deep into the contents of his accounting book, "for it will cost you, Haruhi, 12,000 yen on top of your debt." He scribbled into the book.

She stuttered angrily. "That's absurd! How come I'm the only one who accrues debt here when everyone else gets away with murder?"

"This is the cost of our worry for you," Tamaki said with watery eyes. "I searched so long!"

"We!" corrected the twins.

"A suspicious answer," she grumbled.

"And I would never have found you," continued Tamaki, "had I not found Hani-sempai, whose uncommonly keen nose led us to you two." His sad demeanor again shifted into a furious one as he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Oh, that you were stolen away by this unscrupulous samurai!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "But a samurai, by definition, has lots of scruples…"

"Nevertheless," he interrupted, "I vowed to rescue you, my daughter, and so I shall." He extended his hand down to her in slow-motion—"He's playing this scene out in his head, isn't he?" she thought cynically—grasped her hand, and helped her up.

She blinked confusedly again. "Some rescue."

As a stoic Mori rose, Hani climbed up his shoulders and resumed his rightful position atop his best friend's head. Mori flicked off some mauled branches from his shoulders as Tamaki approached him. "You put Haruhi in grave danger," the King accused.

Mori merely stared the blonde in the face, but Haruhi felt the need to defend her quiet friend. "What are you talking about, Tamaki-sempai? You're the one who almost lopped off our heads!"

And so they bantered all the way back to the third music room.

Hani and Mori, however, lagged behind. From his high perch, Hani said, "It was a fun game, wasn't it, Takashi?"

"Yes."

"Better than the usual games we play?"

Mori made no answer.

"I wondered why Takashi didn't answer when I called." Mori, again, said nothing. Hani smiled astutely and said, "You were asleep." From that high perch, Hani could clearly feel Mori's shoulders sag in relief, and he smiled as he rested his head on top of Mori's.

"So I guess this means you won?"

"Won?" Mori asked with an air of studied indifference.

"The game. You were the last one standing." Mori patted his little friend's foot, but said nothing further.

Yes, it had been a very good game.


End file.
